House GOP just elected as Speaker a co-conspirator in Trump's attempted coup
Mike Johnson was one of the 'architects" of Trump's coup
There are no good Republicans in the House. But some are worse than others. Trump minion Mike Johnson who the House GOP just elected as Speaker is one of the worst. He is a threat to democracy—as well as a “despicable bigot” when it comes to the LGBTQ community as my SiriusXM colleague Michelangelo Signorile detailed in his latest newsletter.
Louisiana GOP Rep. Johnson did far more than just vote against certifying the 2020 election after the Trump’s Jan 6 terrorist attack. Johnson worked hand in hand with Trump in an effort to overturn the 2020 results to silence the voice of millions of Americans who had voted for Joe Biden. That is why last year, the NY Times called Johnson “the most important architect of the Electoral College objections.”
Johnson—who had worked for years as a lawyer representing a Christian nationalist organization—apparently saw Trump’s 2020 attempted coup as an opportunity to help himself politically. We saw this play out after Trump loyalist/Texas Attorney General Ken Paxton filed a lawsuit in December 2020 directly with the US Supreme Court just days before the Electoral College was to meet to certify Biden’s victory. Paxton’s lawsuit sought to invalidate the presidential election results in Pennsylvania, Georgia, Wisconsin and Michigan. This lawsuit came after all of Trump’s recounts, audits and lawsuits had failed to change the 2020 results.
Paxton’s baseless lawsuit—which was quickly dismissed by legal experts as “political theater”--was filled with lies. For example, Georgia’s then GOP deputy secretary of state, Jordan Fuchs, released a statement taking aim at Paxton’s false claims about Georgia, noting, the Texas lawsuit “alleges that there are 80,000 forged signatures on absentee ballots in Georgia, but they don’t bring forward a single person who this happened to.” He added, “That’s because it didn’t happen.”
But Johnson—who served on Trump’s defense team in the first impeachment--obviously didn’t care about the facts nor the truth. The then third term member of Congress simply saw an opportunity to advance his career at the expense of our democratic Republic. That is when Johnson personally spoke with Trump and hatched the idea to draft a friend of the court brief (amicus) in support of Paxton’s BS lawsuit—as well as pressure other House Republicans to sign on to this brief to give the litigation the appearance of legitimacy. Within 24 hours of the Paxton lawsuit being filed, Johnson had personally emailed every GOP member of the House telling them they needed to sign on to this brief, noting Trump is “anxiously awaiting the final list.”
In tandem with the email push to compel House Republicans to stand with Trump over our Republic, Johnson posted on social media, “President Trump called me this morning to let me know how much he appreciates the amicus brief we are filing on behalf of Members of Congress. Indeed, "this is the big one!"
Then GOP Representative Denver Riggleman of Virginia said at the time about Johnson’s pressure to sign on to the brief as Trump wanted, “A lot of people saw that as a threat to their very existence being in Congress.”
Johnson’s brief—like Paxton’s lawsuit—was filled nothing more than Trump’s baseless talking points. For example, Johnson’s brief argued that “the election of 2020 has been riddled with an unprecedented number of serious allegations of fraud and irregularities,” adding, “National polls indicate a large percentage of Americans now have serious doubts about not just the outcome of the presidential contest.”
In reality, the only reason Republicans thought there was fraud was because of Trump’s lies. The brief also repeated lies from Paxton’s lawsuit such as that in Pennsylvania, poll watchers were denied access to watch the ballots being counted. That had been previously fact checked as false, but Johnson doesn’t care about the truth—he cared about advancing his career.
In the end, more than 60 percent of the House GOP signed on to the brief urging the US Supreme Court to not count the electoral votes from four states Trump lost.
The Supreme Court ultimately dismissed the case--as all legal experts predicted—noting that Texas had “not demonstrated a judicially cognizable interest in the manner in which another state conducts its elections.” But if Johnson had his way, millions of voters in four battleground states would have had their voices silenced in the 2020 election.
And even after Trump’s Jan 6 attack, Johnson has continued to help Trump. Johnson not only voted against certifying Biden’s win, but he also voted against creating a bipartisan commission to investigate the Jan 6 attack, voted against impeaching Trump for his attempted coup and opposed holding Trump ally Steve Bannon in contempt of Congress. This is why the Republican Accountability project gave Johnson an “F” rating when it comes to defending our democracy.
When pressed by reporters on Tuesday night about his efforts to overturn the election, Johnson smiled and shook his head, saying, “next question,” as Republicans beside him booed.
Johnson is also rabidly anti-LGBTQ, long fighting in the courts to deny equal rights for members of that community. In Congress, “he introduced a bill in the House last year based on Ron DeSantis' odious “don’t say gay” bill in Florida, meant to force LGBTQ students, teachers and parents into the closet.”
Again, there are no good Republicans in the House. Johnson just happens to be one of the worst.
The House GOP just elected an election denying, anti-LGBTQ bigot as Speaker. In other words, he perfectly sums up today's MAGA GOP.
And yesterday when a reporter tried to ask this nasty little fascist about his election denial, nastier little fascist Virginia Foxx told him to shut up. They also managed to jam most of the white MAGA Christo-fascists on the stage behind him. If they do elect him, we will be asking ourselves again - what is worse, a do-nothing House with no Speaker or a do-nothing House run by a nasty little fascist doing Trump's bidding?